


A Pirate's Life For Me

by AutumnSerpent



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Pirates AU, Shootweek18, also kinda hsau
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-13 18:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnSerpent/pseuds/AutumnSerpent
Summary: “Any public performance, copying or other use is strictly prohibited.”“Almost sounds like a challenge, don’t you think?” Shaw turned to Root who was already looking back at her.“You in or what?”“Ay ay, captain,” Root saluted, eyes shining with mischief.Pirates AU but probably not the way you meant it(Or, teenage Shoot pirate movies because why not)





	1. Go Big or Go Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic ever, and I'm a small nervous mess.  
> I'm immensely proud of this.
> 
> Special thanks to my sister for supporting my frantic typing and my vriend Lesbihane for being awesome and helping me sort out my thoughts.
> 
> Mistakes are all mine. Feedback is appreciated :D

“Hurry up and choose something, Root. At this point, I don’t even care what it is. The one Saturday I don’t have a game, and you want to spend it wasting time picking a movie.”

“Calm down, Sameen,” Root rolled her eyes. “You’re right, we never get a chance for an all-day movie marathon anymore. All the more reason to pick the perfect one to start.” 

The tip of Root’s index finger rested on her chin as she scanned the shelves much slower than necessary. 

“Gee, there’s so many good ones to choose from,” her voice rang out feigning innocence, “I simply can’t decide.” 

“Die Hard”

“What? But we’ve seen it like twe-”

“ _Die. Hard._ ”

Root pouted a little and grabbed the movie from the shelf holding the expansive collection of dvds belonging to Sameen’s dad. Staring directly at Shaw’s smug little face, Root popped it into the dvd player with no further comment.  
This was a fight she couldn’t win.

She settled herself down on the couch as close to Shaw as she could get, practically sitting on her lap, and hit play on the remote. 

Since they’d started dating in sophomore year when Root transferred to their high school, Sameen had been getting more used to physical contact and didn’t really mind it anymore. Not when it was with Root. 

Not when the weight of Root’s body against hers was just enough pressure to reassure her instead of make her skin crawl like it did with literally everyone else.

The dvd’s previews flashed on the screen, and they took that as an opportunity to adjust the sound to their liking. 

They liked to feel surrounded by the action. It helped that last year Root had decked out Shaw’s living room with probably the coolest sound system ever as an early birthday present.

The tv screen went red with the old FBI warning they’d seen a thousand times before. 

Annoyed that the dvd wouldn’t let them skip to the main menu, Sameen sank further into the couch, grumbling the usual legal warnings under her breath, “Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties. What a joke.”

Root followed along, “Any public performance, copying or other use is strictly prohibited.”

“Almost sounds like a challenge, don’t you think?” Shaw turned to Root who was already looking back at her.

Root’s eyes moved down to Shaw’s lips, “I mean, I’m sure they’ve updated their little rules, and the fines are probably heftier these days.” Her nose scrunched up playfully, “I think people are just too scared of the big bad FBI to even try anything anymore.”

A sly smile spread across Sameen’s lips, her eyes flickering up to meet Root’s. “Right? But they should know better than to ‘prohibit’ anything. That only makes laws more satisfying to break.”

The movie began to play on the flat screen, and the bustle of the airport in the opening scene blasted through the living room, capturing their attention again. 

 

\---

As the ending credits started to roll, Root got up to switch to a different movie. Once again scanning the shelves, she picked out a mutual favorite of theirs and plopped it into the dvd player. 

As the FBI warning flashed across the screen, this time in black, Root threw herself down across Shaw’s lap, her head resting on the arm of the couch and her legs splayed out wherever they damn well pleased.

Root could see that Sameen was too busy thinking to even complain about it, until Shaw’s voice broke through, “I bet it’s not even that hard.”

Root let out a scandalized gasp, “But Sameen! That is _very_ illegal!” putting a dainty hand to her chest.

Sameen was never sure whether Root’s flair for the dramatic was cute or obnoxious. Probably both.

She rolled her eyes, fighting the chuckle rising in her throat. “You in or what?”

“Ay ay, captain,” Root saluted, eyes shining with mischief.

 

\---

After agreeing that a Saturday chock-full of crime (their favorite pastime) was better than a movie marathon, the ideas came a little too easily.

Root was still snuggled up to Shaw, the movie on the screen long forgotten.

She twirled a strand of Sameen’s dark hair around her finger, testing how much careful affection she could get away with today.

“Why can’t we just sell some bootleg dvds in that dark abandoned alley behind Thornhill?” Root practically purred, hand moving to fiddle with Sameen’s little ear. 

_Her ears are so cute._

“You’re a visionary, Root.” Shaw grumbled sarcastically, “truly a force to be reckoned with.”

Root smiled and tilted her head, “Do you have a better idea, sweetie?”

“Well you’re good at all this…” Sameen waved her fingers loosely at Root’s laptop, “computer stuff, right?” 

“I’m better than _good_ , Sameen.” Her fingers traveled down Shaw’s neck and traced along her strong collar bones. “What’s your point?” 

“My _point_ is that nobody buys bootleg dvds anymore because they can just stream them online. Everyone’s so fucking desperate to watch the latest Transformers movie- “

“Can’t imagine why. They’re all garbage.” 

Shaw narrowed her eyes at the interruption, “ _Yes they are._ But like I was saying, most people just go to those super shady websites that fuck up your computer with viruses.”

Root nodded slowly, her eyes half-lidded as her fingers traced slow patterns up and down Sameen’s arm.

“Those sites are all the same. They kill your computer, and the quality is too crap to ever be worth it. And they just host _servers_ for movies but not the actual uploads, right? Precisely because they want to avoid any run-ins with the law.”

But Root and Shaw didn’t play like that. No, their game was one that involved some sort of challenge. Something more...exciting.

Root knew exactly what she was playing at now, and it showed in the way she practically draped her body over Shaw’s. 

Her voice salacious, she whispered “Sameen, are you suggesting...”

“Where’s the fun in breaking the law half-assed?” 

 

\---

“I’m not sure we could put a more obvious target on our backs. If the FBI don’t catch a couple of teenagers from right under their own noses, this country truly has no hope.”

“It already has no hope.”

“Really, they should be thanking us for putting them through a fun little exercise. Maybe at the end, they’ll get a prize,” Root mumbled, typing away on her laptop to format their new movie watching website.

If they were going to sneak their way into the FBI’s wanted list for cyber crimes, they were going to do it right. 

Not like Root had never been on that list before. She was a seasoned hacker and this was a walk in the park for her.

They had hundreds of movies from the collection in Shaw’s living room that they’d spent hours ripping and were ready for upload.

“So, we’re gonna sell random codes to get into our site? How are we gonna make the access codes work?”

“Already taken care of, sweetie,” Root insisted, still typing away.

“Make sure it has a cool banner on top. It’s gotta look dope, too.”

“Sameen. I don’t think it really matters.”

They were splayed out on Sameen’s bed where they’d moved their little operation after her mom had gotten home from work. 

Root’s laptop was already overheating from long use and Sameen was getting antsy in the quiet of the room, the creaking of the fan and the _tick tack_ of Root’s typing not quite enough to drown out the silence.

“Just hurry the fuck up, Root. We don’t have all day,” Shaw stared with narrowed eyes at Root’s nimble fingers and chipped black nail polish. 

_She’s got such nice hands. It’s too bad they type so damn slow._

“I do NOT type slow, Sameen. Don’t even joke about it,” Root said, breaking Shaw out of her thoughts. 

Shaw hadn’t realized she’d said that out loud, but she wasn’t one to back down from her words. 

“You absolutely type slow. I bet you don’t actually know how to do this,” Shaw egged her on, but there was no bite in her words. “I dunno, you said you could do it, but maybe we should just goo-”

“I swear to god, Sameen” Root cut her off, but Shaw could see the gleam in her eyes that told her she liked this little impromptu game they were playing.

“What? You spent most of sophomore year trying to get me to talk to you and now you want me to shut up? Honestly, make up your damn mind,” Shaw smirked, knowing she’d won again.


	2. Family Discount

Later that night when Root’s slender hands were cramping from crime and Shaw was too annoyed to stay awake much longer, they dumped everything underneath the bed and let their groggy mumbled scheming fill the darkness of Sameen’s room. 

They laid facing each other like they always did. Root liked watching Sameen fall asleep because for once, her face relaxed until the little crinkle between her brows disappeared. Sameen always thought it a little creepy but wouldn’t dare turn away anymore because, though she’d never admit it, she was completely wrapped around Root’s little finger.

The ceiling fan provided Root’s favorite white noise, rhythmically creaking along with her own heartbeat fluttering away in her ears. Being this close to Sameen always made her feel _things_.

“We could officially open up for business on Monday if you want. I don’t really feel like stalking around any dark alleys tomorrow,” Root whispered, eyes already closed.

“We could try at school first. Lots of cheap bastards there. I can think of at least eight guys in our history class shady enough to be potential buyers. Not like we plan on charging an arm and a leg,” Sameen grumbled into her pillow.

“You’re right. Lionel’s cheap enough to be interested, too. We can start with him.”

 

\---

Come Monday morning, the pair waltzed into their beaten down high school, ready for the real fun to start. Turning down the hallway toward their lockers, they spotted John looking off into the distance and leaning against the wall like the lone wolf he pretended to be. 

“Reese! You seen Fusco around anywhere?” Shaw yelled down the near empty hallway.

John swiveled around on hearing his name called. He nodded his head a little when he saw them, “Hey Shaw. Root. Why do you two look like you want something?”

“Because we do. I literally just asked you if you knew where Lionel was.”

“Yes but why? Isn’t he too scared of Root to hang around for long?”

“You hack a guy’s bank account _one_ time and he freaks out!” Root rocked back and forth on her heels, a wild grin on her face and her eyes almost twinkling from the memory. “How was I supposed to know he’d be opposed to an invasion of his privacy for my own personal gain? It was an honest mistake. Won’t happen again,” she shrugged a little and leaned against Sameen’s side.

“...Right. Well, I don’t know where he is. I don’t usually run into him until lunch,” Reese shrugged noncommittally. 

“Thanks, John. You’ve been completely useless,” Sameen grumbled out and tilted her head in quiet aggravation.

“You still haven’t told me why you’re looking for him.”

“Will you quit bugging if we tell you?” Shaw asked, a little more obviously annoyed this time.

“I guess.”

“We’re messing with the FBI so we made a website where we upload a ton of movies and charge people for access to it and Lionel’s probably gonna be our first customer. Hopefully, a little traffic to our site will catch the attention of the right (or wrong) people and we get to play a little game of cat and mouse with our new favorite crime stoppers,” Root responded a bit too fast to not have rehearsed at some point.

The corner of John’s mouth turned up and his eyes narrowed like he didn’t really know what they were going on about, but he was going to save himself the trouble and just nod.

Root stared at him, noticing his obvious confusion. Her voice a little too high to be casual, she started, “So anyway John, you’re looking...well. Would you by any chance be interested in purcha-”

“No thanks,” John cut her off, a smile on his face.

Root rolled her eyes, “Well there’s no need to be rude.” She shivered a little, her long sleeve shirt too thin to provide much protection from the crisp, stale air of the hallway.

John chuckled a little, crossing his arms, “Whatever it is, why would I want to buy it? I didn’t understand a single thing you said.”

“Shocker,” Shaw deadpanned. She took off her jacket and threw it at Root, then turned back to John, “I just think you should be more supportive of our small business, Reese. It’s a perfectly healthy and productive use of our time.”

“Productive?” _He wasn’t really in the mood to question “healthy”._

“Yeah. We’ll hopefully get flagged down by the government. Come on, man. What’s ten dollars between friends?”

“What? No big brother discount?”

“Oh, you’re right! For you? Twenty five.”

 

\---

It wasn’t until the end of the day when their last class let out that they finally found Fusco digging around in his locker for something. He looked worse for wear but that wasn’t really out of the ordinary since he’d started snooping around the wrong people.

Shaw snuck up behind him, “You alright there, buddy?” 

Lionel jumped and dropped the paper bag he’d gotten out of his locker, its contents (a collection of policeman figurines) spilling out onto the floor.

“Great. Thanks, Maybelline,” Fusco huffed and dramatically bent down to pick up his things.

“Ain’t you a little old to be playing with toys, Lionel?”

“Yeah well nobody asked you,” he mumbled, stuffing the bag into his backpack where the zipper had broken off leaving it wide open. “What do you want?”

“We’re selling codes to get into a site we put together where you can watch and download as many movies as you want. It’s ten bucks,” Root said, ready to read off the same spiel they’d given John.

“Sure.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, taken aback, “That’s it? You’re in without even hearing the details?” 

“Nah, I don’t really care how it works if it saves me a couple bucks,” Fusco shrugged and rubbed his clammy hands together.

“But...I made a slideshow…” Root looked down at her hands.

Fusco just blinked a little, not really caring.

“There’s a pie chart and everything...”

“Go show it to Carter. I’m sure she’d appreciate a nice pie chart.”

“We only take _good_ suggestions, Lionel. Carter would arrest us herself if she could. She’s too honest,” Shaw said, scowling at him.

“So what? You two are just casually breaking the law for fun? What’s the point?”

“There isn’t one.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come cry about Root and Shaw with me on tumblr @autumnserpent


End file.
